An Angel in Wasteland
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: The Angel has fallen my Sister, what would you like us to do to her? "Kill her." [Post EM2][WIP][Semi-reboot of 'The Queen of Wasteland'][Reviews welcome!]
1. Trapped

**Some time ago, in a world void of imagination…**

. . .

Seven figures loomed over the human girl as her face grew pale with their sudden approach.

"No, no please!" the human begged.

 _What you have done is unforgivable. You must be punished._

"No… no please…!" the human cried, getting down her hands and knees. "I didn't know! I didn't think…"

 _Your crime can not be forgiven, it can not be forgotten. You will suffer for as long as you are aware._

"No…! No, no, no!"

With a single word, the figures raised their hands as if in prayer, and as the girl whimpered a shadow started to form from underneath of her. The shadow darkened before it slowly started to swallow the girl alive. Her whimpering quickly began to turn into screeches of terror.

 _To a Wasteland you will be sent; encased in stone is how you will see the world. They will call you an Angel, but they will never know your true nature. You will see many different creatures roam the world, but you shall never be able to call for help. You will watch them suffer and be able to do nothing. Will you ever be freed from your prison? Perhaps… Someday you could ask a certain lucky rabbit and his mouse of a brother. But what mercy could they show for a monster like you?_

. . .

The news was given to Oswald as frank as possible. It certainly wasn't the answer that he wanted to hear, that's for sure. Wasn't quite the answer Mickey had been expecting either. The gremlin that had been assigned to deliver the bad news looked a bit sheepish at their reactions, however justified they were.

"One more time." Oswald requested. "I just want to make sure I'm hearing this right. No one can get to Dark Beauty at all right now?"

The gremlin nodded. "If any part of Wasteland got the most amount of damage from the quake was that poor castle." he affirmed. "Connection to the projectors have been practically severed from the main network, and the train station was taken down during the last major quake Wasteland saw. And then there were the fireworks…"

Unintentionally or not, Oswald flinched at the mention of the fireworks. Now he just hoped no one would tell Ortensia about the miscellaneous fireworks that he had collected around the castle before the quakes hit.

"How am I going to get back to the Toon World?" Mickey then inquired. "Didn't you guys use a TV as a portal between our worlds?"

"The quake damaged it soon after you arrived Mick, don't you remember?" Oswald reminded, shoving the memory of his firework hoarding out of mind.

"What about if we fiddle with a TV sketch?" the mouse then asked.

"No good." The gremlin told him. "A television produced by the TV sketch wouldn't last long enough to create a connection to the Toon World- even if it could, it doesn't have the same power as a classic telly."

"What about Mickeyjunk Mountain?" Mickey then suggested. "There were televisions there."

Oswald looked at Mickey and let out an amused scoff. "Between the Blot and the quakes, Mickeyjunk Mountain is the EPA's worse nightmare." The rabbit told his brother with a small hint of pride. "Getting near that place is going to be more impossible than getting to Dark Beauty at this rate."

"And there are no other televisions in Wasteland?" Mickey asked. Oswald and the gremlin nodded their heads.

"You gotta understand Mickey," Oswald pointed out, "Most of us were theater Toons; it was all we knew. After we set up the projectors to get through Wasteland, we didn't really think about using televisions. Heck, I'd place a good ten bucks that most of these Toons don't even know what a television is."

"So… I'm not leaving any time soon?" Mickey asked. His question was met in silence as Oswald and the gremlin simply looked back at him. The mouse then gave a solemn nod in understanding.

"Min's going to be upset when I miss our date again." He then said. "I hope she'll understand though."

"Now that we are agreed," the gremlin then started to say, "The rest of the gremlins and I will find a way back to Dark Beauty. Have fun while you wait!"

"Thanks." Mickey and Oswald both said as the gremlin left.

"Well then…" Oswald then started to say, feeling a bit awkward now. "How dead are you going to be when Minnie find out you're late for your date?"

Mickey looked at his brother with a funny look before realizing that the rabbit had been joking. The mouse soon after gave a light chuckle.

. . .

Down underground on the Angel side of the Rainbow Caverns a rejected dwarf named Deafy had been told to investigate the statue of the Angel of Wasteland. Some Toons had been complaining about it smelling… sounding… like another cupcake… earthquake was going to come. They needed someone to go down to check, Deafy just happened to be around so he was volunteered unwillingly. Just because he was a wharf… dwarf, didn't mean that people could just assume that he knew his way around a whine... mine. Mine is what they said, right? The Cavern wasn't a place to whine, but it sure didn't look much like a mine either.

Turns out there might have been something to whine about after all; the statue of the Angel of Wasteland had completely fallen away from the cavern wall, leaving behind a rather large amount of rubble under the site.

Muttering at his luck and stereotypical role, Deafy set to work clearing the rubble in search of any Toon that could have gotten trapped under. He dug around for quite some time, breaking away larger chunks with his pickaxe, confident that Oswald wouldn't want to keep the fallen rocks around anyway. Deafy continued to work until he got to a point where the original ground could reached again. From the section he was working on, he started to notice a price of fabric sticking out in the rubble. Not a fabric he recognized though, but it could still mean someone was trapped under so the dwarf worked faster.

The fabric had more to it, starting to shape itself out as a dress, and after a minute or so Deafy noticed a pair of feet under the fabric.

"Great..." the dwarf hastily muttered before working faster still. He continued to uncover the feet and worked upwards to uncover the legs, torso, arms, and head- all of which were facing down as if the falling rocks had taken them from behind. Deafy uncovered all of the body before carefully rolling them over to get a look at their face.

For a moment, after realizing what he had uncovered, Deafy stood frozen before running toward the projector for Mean Street. No one like this has ever been in Wasteland before, and everyone was going to know about it too.

. . .

 _The Angel has been freed my sister, what would you like us to do next?_

 _ **Kill her.**_


	2. Snow White Without the Charm

"Come on Pete, just 'cause she's different doesn't mean you can lock her in the jail cell!" Deafy argued to Big Bad Pete, the one that had been stationed at Mean Street's town hall jail cells.

"If you ask me, that's the perfect reason to lock her up!" the fat cat claimed with a nasty chuckle. "If that mouse can manipulate Wasteland the way he wants just 'cuz he has a heart, imagine what this chick would do if she had the chance!"

"Muck her up…? That's cruel Pete! And I have yet to see a house manipulate Wasteland for the sake of art. Seriously Pete, some times you copies have weird senses of imagination!"

"I didn't say…" Pete started to argue, but stopped himself with an angered huff. "Whatever, it's no wonder you were withdrawn."

"I am wonderfully drawn, thank you." Deafy then declared as if Pete had given him a compliment. In return, Pete groaned in bitter frustration. To save the insufferable conversation, the door of town hall opened and in came Oswald with Mickey close behind.

"So… I heard that someone found a girl in the Caverns?" Oswald uneasily questioned, not particularly talking to anyone but turned toward Pete.

"I did not hound her, but I did find her." Deafy confirmed.

"Isn't that what you just said?" Mickey whispered to Oswald.

"Deafy doesn't hear too well." the rabbit whispered calmly back. "He thinks he's pretty clever though; but if he ain't hearing, he ain't clever."

Mickey nodded to show that he understood before turning toward the dwarf. "Where is she? Is she alright?"

Deafy nodded and led the duo to the jail cell that Pete had locked the stranger behind. Mickey and Oswald peered in and after straining to see the figure slumped in the corner, both of them jumped back in surprise.

"There's a human in there!" Mickey yelped in surprise. "How did she end up here?!"

"I found her in the caverns." Deafy retorted as if it were obvious. "Right underneath where the Angel used to be. Geez, and some folks think _I'm_ the one that can't hear."

"Wait..." Oswald interjected. "Where the Angel _used_ to be? What do you mean Deafy?"

The dwarf let out a groan of frustration. "The Angel in the Caverns fell away and under the rubble was where I found the girl. It was in a fit to collapse any way after the Mad Doc dried up the Guardian pools. Seriously, for the leader of Wasteland you sure do a horrible job at it."

The rabbit did not say anything, instead giving the dwarf a rather dark look before turning back to the human. Mickey didn't look too happy at the dwarf either. "Don't you have someplace you need to be?" the mouse questioned. For a moment, the dwarf stood where he was as if Mickey hadn't said a thing, but soon turned around and headed toward the door.

"A thanks would have been nice..." Deafy muttered before shutting the door behind him. Mickey shook his head, feeling as if the dwarf didn't need a thanks after being rude to Oswald, then turned toward his brother and the girl in the jail cell.

From what little lighting lit up the jail cell, the two could see that the human girl was wearing an ornate gown with long bell sleeves. A part of her mid length coal black hair gently hung over her pixie-like face, making her seem more than a lost princess in search of her prince; blameless.

"She's sleeping." Oswald told Mickey in an absent tone.

"Let's be glad that it's the only thing she's doing." the mouse replied as he folded his arms together. "According to Deafy, she should have been crushed by the rubble. If she really is human, she's either extremely lucky or something else helped her. Especially since we just dealt with the Mad Doctor, I think we need to be careful about who she is."

"How could a human even come to Wasteland to begin with?" Oswald inquired as well. "That's like, three different walls of reality to break through. It's one thing if it's a Toon coming because all they have to do is lose their crowd funded heart. But a human would have to lose their soul and heart to come here… right?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Oswald." Mickey claimed with a shake of his head. "It's too confusing to think about right now. Maybe she'll have some answers when she wakes up."

"I hope she does Mick. I really do hope she has some answers..."

. . .

She looked rather extravagant for someone who was arguing against one of the industry's greatest animation companies. Some folks could have argued that this was no place for a girl like her- most of them would have questioned why she was out of school to protest for the writers to begin with. She certainly became the focal point of the fledgling strike, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, it wasn't her place, and she needed to be brought back down to where she belonged… immediately.

. . .

"She's waking up." someone said as her mind finally came back into consciousness. She let out a small groan in response; don't wake me up, let me sleep, please…

"Hey girlie, wake it up already!" someone else demanded, shaking something metal with great force. "We ain't got all day for you to be Snow White here!"

"'Aurora's wake up sequence was longer." she slurred as she opened her eyes to stare at a bar of jail cell bars and a small handful of Toons. "Although I'm flattered you compared me to a princess, that sure was sweet of you."

The girl then got a better look at the Toons that stared at her from beyond the bars. A rabbit and mouse about the same height, a rather tall cat that beat the rabbit and mouse with size measurements around as well, and a green skinned something or other in a red jumpsuit with a beard looked back at her with various degree of interest. She only stared back at them, wishing that she felt more surprised than what she actually was.

"How do you feel?" the rabbit finally asked.

"I'm in a tiny jail cell with no room to move my legs and being stared down by Toons I don't know." came the reply, dull and unamused, "How do you think I feel?"

"Watch who you're talking to!" the red jumpsuited thing called her out. "You're talking to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the leader of Wasteland!"

"My apologies then." the girl claimed in return, although it did not appear genuine. "Maybe I'll be nicer if someone would let me out of here? Yeah, I like that idea. Let's do that."

"Just a few questions, then we'll talk about it." the mouse told her. The girl looked over at him and snickered.

"Mickey Mouse? I'm trapped here by Mickey Mouse. Gee, that is… unexpected, and I would know." She turned to the cat as well and gave a teasing smile. "And Pete. Oh boy, I'm really scared now."

"Watch it girlie," Pete threatened, "Or I'll knock you out again in a heartbeat!"

"I'd like to see that." she insisted with a wicked smile laced on her lips.

"Can't we be civil about this?" the thing in the jumpsuit interjected. Noticing an eyebrow raise from the girl, the thing turned to her direction and introduced himself. "I'm Gus, the leader of the Gremlins. Would you mind telling us who you are, if you are able to remember of course?"

"You can call me Sabrina." she answered. "And, in some respects, I suppose the full title could be Sabrina, Angel of Wasteland."

"Wait… you're the Angel of Wasteland?" Oswald asked.

"Well the carving in the Caverns is gone and I'm here," Sabrina argued, "Why haven't you thought otherwise yet?"

The rabbit did not have an answer for this and went silent.

"Now that we know you're name, we need to know when you came." Mickey suggested. "What was the last movie that was announced at the theater?"

Sabrina thought about it for a moment before clicking her fingers together.

"Chicken Little." she decided.

"You're from _that_ era?"

"I was actually born around The Little Mermaid." Sabrina affirmed with a nod. "But Chicken Little wasn't that bad, you know, except for the critic's opinion of it. Money's all a studio cares about any way, doesn't it?"

Oswald looked from Mickey to Sabrina, and back again. "What on earth happened to the studio since I left?" he questioned with a raise of his eyebrow.

"It doesn't matter right now." Mickey claimed, shutting down the conversation quickly. "But now we have an estimate of how long you've been here Sabrina, and how old you are."

"Now what are you going to do to me?" the girl entertained, but not hiding a sense of uneasiness.

"I have an idea." Pete smirked, but Oswald and Mickey looked at each other in silent decision. In agreement, they looked back at Sabrina and gave her their answer.


	3. Freedom and Ire

The girl stood outside the town hall with her arms outstretched as if in prayer. Although a real sun couldn't be found in Wasteland, the substitute served just as well and just as inviting.

"Forgot what this feels like..." she whispered gratefully. "Being aware of something definitely blows compared to actually being able to feel it."

"You were aware the entire time in the Caverns?" Oswald asked, starting to look a bit pale.

"I've seen the Blot Wars from every direction, experienced the Guardian pools dry up, watched you deal with the Mad Doctor (not the way I would have done it, that's for sure, that horrible jerk), and I know that Mickey has no way of getting back to the Toon world." Sabrina confirmed, looking at him with a vague, but pensive expression. "Why?"

The rabbit didn't look at her as he rubbed the back of his head. "It's nothing, just curious." he claimed. Sabrina looked down at him through furrowed eyebrows and looked as if she was going to say something, but the trio were soon greeted by an everyman Toon.

"Are you really the Angel of Wasteland?" the Toon questioned Sabrina, looking her up and down with a sense of expecting something better. Sabrina stepped closer to the everyman, asserting her role of being a little bit taller and a whole lot more intimidating. She bent down just slightly so her burning chocolate brown eyes were at eye level with the Toon, and put on a mysterious half smile that scared the everyman to wits.

"Do you need guidance my dear?" she asked sweetly that butter could have melted on her tongue. The poor Toon had seemed to, at least. Slowly, then quickening, the Toon shook his head.

"Jack Kelly was… he was looking for a news story." the Toon admitted. "And when that deaf dwarf came out of town hall mumbling something 'bout an Angel and a part of the Caverns falling away… And Jack Kelly pays pretty well if it's a good scoop so I… I thought you were..."

"A good scoop?"

The everyman Toon nodded his head, never once letting his eyes leave Sabrina's. It was rather haunting to watch as well, Oswald in particular had forgotten he had legs and stared on at Sabrina and the everyman Toon with a hypnotic interest.

"Tell everyone my dear." Sabrina crooned into the Toon's ear. "Tell everyone that the Angel of Wasteland has come. Tell them that her name is Sabrina. Do you understand?"

The Toon eagerly nodded his head and ran off in the opposite direction without another word. Sabrina recoiled and smiled to herself as she placed her hands on her hips.

"That was… amazing." Oswald suddenly spoke up. Sabrina whipped around and gave him a look of disgust.  
"It was not." she told him. "I was stopping a rumor before it ever started."

"Now you've gained attention to yourself." Gus thoughtfully addressed. "If you're as powerful as the legends say, that was a rather horrible decision you made."

"I know what the legends say about me and I don't care." the human girl mused with a roll of her shoulder. "Some one was bound to recognize me eventually, why not speed up the process?"

"You're rather reckless, you know that don't you?" Gus huffed. Sabrina in turn gave him a rather sweet smile.

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." she replied as if it were something to be honored.

. . .

"Are you sure that no one will find the siphon?" the red haired woman questioned Pete Pan in a soft tone. Her long white gown was a stark contrast to the grassy atmosphere of Ventureland's jungle, and the small tiara at the top of her head gave her authority over all. She looked as if she belonged somewhere else, or maybe that was just Pete Pan confusing her with Ariel.

"It's perfectly hidden my dear." Pete Pan affirmed. "Hehe, ain't no one gonna find it with me around."

"Unless you draw further attention to it." the woman argued, folding her arms together impatiently. "All of the known Pete variants were not drawn to be subtle."

"Look," Pete Pan spat, "Even if it don't work, you'll have a way to… hurt that Angel or whatever. Trap her and all that- see what I'm saying?"

The woman said nothing, looking off to the side with an angered look and a bitter eye roll. "That little brat is now in proximity of that mouse and rabbit- the longer she spends with them, the more of her heart she gives away. The more of her heart she gives away, the harder it will be to uproot her from Wasteland once and for all. She has a soul, and with that soul she can create hearts. Hearts that do not belong in this world anymore to anyone. If you do not see to it that she meets her end here, I will make sure you and others like you become inert permanently- do you understand me?"

Pete Pan gave a gruff nod and returned to his work. But once he was sure he was out of her earshot, he muttered under his breath, "Who shoved a bug up her butt?"

She had heard him though, but she had other plans to get out of the way before the 'Angel' graced Ventureland with her presence. Of course visiting that little gremlin was first priority. Trapped in a cage of her own design, he looked anything than pleased to see her.

"Good afternoon Prescott." the woman softly greeted with a calm voice. "I've come to thank you again for bringing the siphon from Autotopia to Ventureland for me. Ventureland is so massive, it was almost too easy to hide something like a power sucking machine that may or may not murder a human if used in the wrong way..."

"Just because your name is Ire doesn't mean you need to act on it." Prescott muttered, still refusing to look at her. "The girl was trapped in an aware suspended animation for years and you're still trying to harm her? No one deserves that, even if she did try to shut down the studio..."

"How can you not be upset that she tried to upset the very fabric that allows you to be here?" the woman questioned him in return.

"She was the only one with that opinion." Prescott argued. "She was one girl, and even if she would eventually shut down the studio, it was more than likely that someone would buy it and continue where they left off."

"That girl is dangerous."

"No more than what you appear to be?"

A quick flash of fire reflected in the woman's eyes as an invisible force took Prescott's cage and tossed it some feet away. The gremlin, although in pain, let out a small snicker.

"Yen Sid made the best decision taking Wasteland from the Seven Sisters." he uttered to her. "You would have killed us all just for existing."

This time, Prescott's cage lifted into the air and was tossed far, far away from Ventureland.

. . .

Back on Mean Street, Sabrina felt an uncomfortable crawl up her back. Instinctively, the human took a step back, nearly stepping on top of Oswald in the process.

"Is something wrong?" he asked her, looking a bit annoyed at being stepped on.

"No… no I don't think so." Sabrina admitted. "I just… have a bad feeling. That's all."

Oswald blinked, his expression softening by a small fraction but still remained a bit annoyed. "A bad feeling?" he repeated, even sounding skeptical.

"It's nothing." she insisted, giving him a rather unfriendly glare. She relented though, and looked down at her dress. "I really don't like this thing." she muttered as she picked up the bottom hem of the dress to get a closer look of it. "Get tortured and it just _now_ decides to split apart?"

Oswald raised an eyebrow but said nothing. His empathy for her was rather low at the moment, but there was no question that some kind of feeling was slowly rising inside of him; if only a tad bit nostalgic.

"Hey Mickey, Gus," Oswald then called out to his brother and the gremlin, both of whom were several steps ahead, "Can we make a trip to the Haberdasher real quick?"

Mickey and Gus gave Oswald the same look of confusion.

"I don't think now is the right time for dress up." Mickey said to Oswald.

"Not for us!" the lucky rabbit interjected before starting to motion toward Sabrina, who pretended not to notice that attention had been brought to her. Mickey and Gus looked at each other then back at Oswald.

"Alright." Mickey agreed. "Lead the way."

A wide grin beamed on Oswald's face as he took hold of Sabrina wrist, excitedly pulling her toward the Haberdasher's Hat Shop while letting out a thousand little 'thank yous' to Mickey and Gus when he passed them.

"What's up with Oswald?" Mickey asked Gus as they slowly started to pick up their gait. "He seems a bit… off."

"I think I have an idea." Gus informed Mickey. "But I'm not sure yet, but maybe Oswald will tell us once we get to the Hat Shop."

Mickey gave the gremlin a nod, and they followed behind Oswald without a further word.


	4. Absence Makes the Heart - - -

The haberdasher looked Sabrina over as he took some measurements. He muttered some things that sounded as if he was fitting her, some other comments were… questionable, to be sure.

"Hartman standard, such a quotidian practice." the haberdasher contemplated as he measured Sabrina's hips. "Too much tail… although surprisingly lacking..."

"Are you making fun of me?" Sabrina questioned as the haberdasher went about measuring from her hip to her ankle.

"My hippopotamus appreciates a seraph in periwinkle purple polka dots, don't you?"

"I think the mercury needs to seep in through the pipes a bit more, your blood isn't dangerous enough."

"Oh, I agree! The air is too stiff, something must be done about it!"

Sabrina resisted the urge to let out a smile and took a peek over at Mickey, Oswald, and Gus getting an eyeful of her fitting. None of them really paid much attention -she'd give them something to in a few minutes, just wait- and they talked amongst themselves about something. Being the slightly nosey brat that she was, Sabrina tried to strain her ear to hear their conversation, but her attempts were blocked by the haberdasher as he made comments over her measurements. As humorous as they were, it was starting to get annoying.

Just barely though, she could make out a few strands of dialog…

"Oswald, are you feeling alright?" Mickey asked his brother.

"Yeah." the rabbit agreed as if it were nothing new. "Why?"

"You just kinda seem… absent recently." said Mickey. "You're thinking of something, or… remembering something. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Mickey, I think you're just looking for excitement after dealing with the Mad Doctor!" Oswald quickly claimed. But looking at Mickey's unrelenting expression made Oswald let out a deep sigh of defeat.

"It's a long story." Oswald admitted.

"We have time." Mickey rebutted calmly. Oswald looked at Mickey with a less than grateful look, but couldn't resist the mouse's curiosity.

"Before Ortensia came down and everyone else, it was just me." he informed Mickey. "I didn't start working on Mean Street and Ostown until after everyone else came, but I found the Caverns early by mistake. It was there were I… talked to the Angel carving. She never replied, but the Tints and Turps did. I always thought that she… that she sent them to communicate for her. Angels have their own guardians, right?

"It didn't take long for everyone to come to Wasteland with me, so when we started working on Ostown and Mean Street I just... stopped visiting her in the Caverns. In some ways, I think I forgot about her and in turn the Tints and Turps went into a sort of dormant state until you came along. They could tell that the power you had could free her, I think, that was why they decided to help you throughout Wasteland.

"I was going to apologize to her, for some reason, before the Blot Wars… but you know what happened during that time. And even after the Blot, I couldn't come down to face her. It was like… abandoning someone you loved, and I couldn't… I didn't want to go through that. Not again, not on the other end of the spectrum."

"You did eventually though, when we had to investigate what was happening on Mean Street." Mickey reminded him.

"Only because we needed to." Oswald rebutted. "If it weren't for the Mad Doc using the Guardians, they could have told us how she was feeling after seeing me again after so long. Knowing how it felt after someone left me, and wondering if she felt the same after seeing me..."

"Do you want her to remember you?" asked Mickey curiously. Embarrassed, Oswald hid his head in his hands.

"I don't know..." he mumbled quietly. "I don't really think I want her to Mick… Is that wrong?"

Mickey thought about it as he looked over at Sabrina. The human girl looked ready to slap the haberdasher five ways until Sunday as the Toon attempted to slip the bodice of her new outfit on top of her; it wasn't going over very well.

"I think she means a lot to you if you feel so conflicted about asking her what she knows." Mickey decided.

"Mickey..." Oswald whispered so quietly that Mickey almost didn't hear him, "Before I knew that Ortensia would come… I… I fell in love with the Angel of Wasteland. And I thought that I would have grown out of it after getting Ortensia back but… but I haven't. Mickey… I think… I think I love Sabrina more than I do Ortensia…!"

If Mickey jaw could have dropped any lower, it would have touched the ground.

. . .

Timid, for the first time in never, Oswald made his way up to the Angel's engraving on the Cavern walls. "H-hey..." he greeted with a sheepish grin, "It's... me again… I guess."

The rabbit felt and seemed so small compared to the looming, silently judging face of Wasteland's Angel, as he had decided to call her. Slowly rising up from the ground to circle around him, the Tints and Turps greeted Oswald with warm sensations that substituted for little butterfly kisses. Oswald smiled as he let the greeting surround him with its kindness and gratefulness- he looked up at the Angel's carved face and let out a bright, wide smile. His respect for this piece of clay and marble was outstanding, considering that it served nothing more than to let him talk to himself without being judged. Maybe that was just what he needed; he just needed to… let it go, and this seemingly inanimate thing was just _here_ waiting for him, always ready to lend an ear whether it wanted to or not.

"So I was considering building a town or something," Oswald announced after the Guardians dispersed back into the ground, "But I want to know if others will come too. You're great company and all, but it's not… it just isn't the same thing without someone answering you, you know? And you can't exactly go anywhere either so… there's that too."

Nervously, the rabbit let out a chuckle as he waited for a response. Several minutes passed and there was nothing. Oswald let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head, still waiting for an answer. A small pit started to form at the bottom of his stomach and climbed like a snake up to his chest, seizing it to take his lungs with him.

She was mad at him.

"I'll still come to see you!" Oswald offered, just wanting a single response. "I'm thinking about a way of transporting through areas, like how projectors take movie goers to different worlds through a screen! There's plenty of space near the Falls, so I think we could build a substation or something around there to just get the first few projectors working. Heh… what do you think?"

A few minutes passed for the rabbit before he noticed Turps slowly starting to appear, and they soon circled around Oswald with a tense feeling to them.

Oh for the love of the Nine Old Men… she really _was_ mad at him!

Doing all in his power not to run in the opposite direction screaming like a little girl, Oswald looked up at the Angel with an expression of mild panic and foreign control over his stress levels. Well, he wanted to get an answer, and he did. Why the Turps though? They could leave a mark if you're not careful…

"I'll find a way to preserve the Falls!" Oswald insisted, his voice cracking slightly. "The only thing you'll ever have to worry about is… is how many people are going to find you as beautiful as I do! I mean, sure you're a fancy pile of stone, but your heart isn't! I mean, you send the Guardians to 'talk' to me, right? You wouldn't do that if you didn't care; not if you didn't have a heart..."

The Turps flickered in and out for a moment before disappearing all together, allowing Oswald to let out a breath of relief.

"I'll find a way to protect you, and all of Wasteland." Oswald then promised. "Even if it means my own life! Do you hear me? Do you understand? If there ever comes a day when we can't talk because Wasteland has died, then so will I- and that's a promise!"


End file.
